For years, electronic funds transfers have enabled customers to send money worldwide in real-time. In 1871, Western Union began offering customers electronic funds transfer service via telegraph. Since that time, the communication means has changed only slightly and the utility of “wire services” have increased in step with the growth of world trade. Financial institutions have been developing new technologies to encourage the transfer of funds in a line of credit to retailers and service providers. It is in the best interest of credit providers as well as their credit-worthy customers to provide more convenient and readily available methods for conducting transactions against a line of credit. Circa 1950, American Express and Diners Club introduced the first charge cards. The charge cards were intended to replace cash currency in limited circumstances allowing customers to facilitate cashless purchases that would later be paid in cash. These cards were limited in that they were only accepted by a small number of geographically bound businesses. Standards for magnetic strips were established in the early 1970s and credit cards gained wide appeal from customers and greater acceptance from venders.
Banks most often allow their customers to transfer funds from a line of credit into a deposit account. However, these types of transfers are limited in that they only allow transfers of funds from a customer's line of credit into an account which is owned by the same customer. Further, most banks will not allow an online transfer from an unaffiliated line of credit into a customers deposit account. In other words, a transfer of funds from a credit line offered by bank A into a deposit account of bank B would not be possible online. This type of transfer would likely require the customer to personally retrieve the funds from Bank A and then personally deposit the funds into the account at Bank B.
While the prior art provides a means for transferring a balance from a credit line to an account within the same institution, it does not provide the flexibility needed by increasingly sophisticated consumers who may maintain a number of different financial accounts with any number of providers. Therefore, a need exists for a system and method to provide credit line customers a means to transfer cash from one or more lines of credit into a variety of secondary accounts including deposit accounts owned by the customer, deposit accounts owned by others, and payment systems used in retailing.